GREELEY — The JBS USA meatpacking plant has promised to take steps to prevent animal cruelty after a worker struggled this month to kill an injured cow.

A report, issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said that on March 6, the Food Safety and Inspection Service issued Swift Beef Company Inc. in Greeley a “notice of intended enforcement.”

The report described plant employees moving cattle from one pen to another, when an “animal was observed to trip, fall down and break a hind leg.

“The plant employee decided to knock the animal in the pen using a .22 caliber rifle. The animal ‘went wild’ after the first shot, which did not produce immediate unconsciousness, circling its head, falling over, running into the fence, and at one point charged toward the pen supervisor …”

“The animal was shot five more times, which took roughly five minutes to render it unconscious.”

JBS told the USDA in two written responses it would take corrective and preventive steps.

Inspectors said they would defer a decision on enforcement pending confirmation that the steps have been taken.

The FSIS District Office in Denver received the written responses from JBS on March 7 and 10, after requesting more information.

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